Navy aims to Curtail Aviation Mishaps Caused by Crew Error.

AuthorErwin, Sandra I.

The U.S. Navy's plan to improve safety in aviation will emphasize the need to reduce "human error," said Rear Adm. Frank M. "Skip" Dirren Jr.

If human errors that result in mishaps were lowered by 50 percent during the next five years, the Navy would save 250 lives and $1 billion, said Dirren, who is commander of the Navy Safety Center. He spoke during the Tailhook Association's annual convention, in Reno, Nev.

Human errors are those committed by air crews, supervisors and by maintenance and facilities personnel.

In the 1995-1999 period, Navy and Marine Corps aircraft were involved in 155 so-called class A mishaps. Those are mishaps that involve loss of life or at least $1 million in damage. Of those 155 accidents, 85 percent involved human error.

Even though the accident rate so far in 2000 is on an upswing, compared to 1999, the Navy, over the long term, is experiencing fewer mishaps, Dirren said. The service lost 22 planes in 1999. But 50 years ago, the Navy was having 54 mishaps per 100,000 flight hours. That number went down to 1.9 (for Navy and Marine Corps combined) in 1999.

"It's easy for us to say 'there's a problem with the air crew,"' said Dirren. But that is not the case, he stressed. "These are first rate aviators. ... They have to do things that older aviators never had to do or didn't have the capability to do."

The 1995-99 period was by far the "best years" for naval aviation safety, said Dirren. Nonetheless, those 155 mishaps over five years cost the United States $4 billion and 1,000 deaths.

For the 1995-99 period, Navy and Marine Corps aviators had 506 flight mishaps, including class A and less serious ones. From that total, 366, or 72 percent, were caused by human error, according to charts published by the Navy Safety Center.

For all U.S. military services combined, 80 percent of flight mishaps are caused by human error.

For the Navy, one third of those human errors involve rule violations, said Dirren. That problem is more acute in the rotary-wing fleet, he said. "We have to do much better at explaining the rules."

Dirren believes the Navy could reduce human errors up to 50 percent by 2006. That would save 250 lives and $1 billion.

"The biggest issue today is how to reduce human error," Dirren said. In the F-14 Tomcat fleet, for example, three out of four mishaps in the last five years were related to pilot or supervisor mistakes. For the EA/6B Prowler electronic warfare fleet, about two-thirds of mishaps are caused by...

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